When Demons Rise and Angels Fall
by Servant of SHEVAL
Summary: In the midst of a war between heaven and hell, a group of both demons and angels, seperated by sides and sunset, strive to find where their love, and their loyalties lie. ZackCloud, CloudVincent, VincentLucrecia, AU. ON EXTENDED HOLD
1. Prologue

**Author's Beginning Note Thingy:** I hate and love school. On the plus side, it gives me TONS of great fanfic ideas. On the downside, it gives me NO time to actually write any of them... so I'm currently depriving myself of precious sleep to bring you this. XD

First allow me to say that the idea of doing an AU fic of this kind was inspired by the author Zarla, and specifically her story 'Dragon Wing and Demon Claw'. Go check it out, if you like.

Secondly, I am now giving any and all credit for the reality this fic takes place in, and the majority of the plotline to the author of the online manga, Shades of Grey, accessible at 'http: -/ - /- shadesofgrey. rydia. net'. Just take out the spaces and the hyphens (stupid screening). Thank you very much, Rone, for this wonderful inspiration. It just fit FF7 characters so well.

If you know the manga already, or take time to read it (which you should), you'll probably see some key differences that I throw in, to keep this interesting, and not plagiarism. Mine will also, somewhat obviously, end sooner than hers... I know from experience how much time drawing beautiful pictures like hers takes, as well as how long writing a good story takes, and she combines the two arts to give us 2-to-4 new pages a week. This is nothing short of a godly feat, and she should be commended for it. But as I am easily distracted from homework, and only have to focus on making my words pretty, not my pictures, I will probably draw this story to a close long before I know how the real one ends, so there are virtually no spoilers at all. XD Yay!

Last thing... because summaries are too short:

Warnings: Possible Rape/Lemons, Tifa Bashing, Violence, Character Death, and if you're sensitive about religious content and the very very necessary amount of screwing I do with it, leave now and never come back.

That done... let the fic begin!

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Zachary stood, half-hidden in his immaculate white robes, behind the drab grey rock. The nightmarish formations jutted out in all directions from the dust-encrusted, rubble-strewn ground. Isolated in the middle of a wine-dark sea, and silhouetted against a flaming sky lay the island that was the Land of Sunset.

This is where he stood, crouching beside one of the jagged rocks, sword in hand, wings furled carefully at his sides, clumpy raven hair was thrown and tossed about behind him in the bitter hot winds. He stood waiting, waiting for the sight of his prey.

It wasn't guaranteed he'd find one: a demon here in this precise moment, at this precise time, after all only one angel, and one fallen could ever be allowed to fight in this arena at the same time... so the chances of a battle were small, the chances of success even smaller.

But it was his luck, or perhaps even misfortune, that out of the blazing fires of the sky plummeted the twisted, grotesque form that his eyes were so accustomed to searching out. A grin pierced his stoic expression, and his grip tightened around the hilt of his weapon.

Landing with a dull, yet somehow graceful thump on the soft ground, it kicked up a cloud of dust and dirt around itself, momentarily obscuring the shape. When the haze settled, Zachary saw the hunched frame of the demon before him:

Silvery wings, stretched out to their full, had a thin leathery film flapping between them in the wind. They seemed to sparkle with an ethereal, otherworldly, _unholy_, he thought, light. The wings met at their base with a pale body, skin and shape reminiscent almost of a human's, but it couldn't be, of course... because in some places that skin gave way to iron-grey fur. A bushy tail curled around human legs, thighs marked with blue crescent moons, but as the legs descended into furry pawed feet with fierce black talons, much alike those that sprouted out of its human hands.

The creature stood there in silence for a moment, hunched low, as if prowling, and observing the landscape before it. It was then that some of its hair bristled, and it turned slowly around, now aware of being watched.

Zachary then got a clear view of its front... a forked tongue darted out of a wolflike face, that same matching grey-hue, save for a smattering of gold in its forelock. The same blue crescents marked one on each cheek, and on the forehead. Sky blue eyes locked onto his lavender.

He gave a nervous swallow. He'd never once fought, or even so much as seen something this big and ferocious looking. But... he needed a distraction anyway, he realized, after finding that even now his thoughts were slipping away into events recently past. He shook his head to clear it, idly wondering why the demon hadn't attacked him in the moment of weakness. _Yes..._ he agreed, while charging, sword raised, _...I need a distraction._

The battle was nigh on endless, and he thought he would die of weariness before the demon even landed the first blow... because it hadn't yet. He soon began to realize that, for all it's looks, it wasn't a big fighter... and he was easily besting it, in small ways. A trip up for it there meant a nick of his blade against its skin here. Dark stains began seeping over its body, and as time wore on the beast visibly slowed.

Its fatal mistake was an attempted retreat. Turning tail, literally, the demon fled... or tried to. Zachary brought his blade instinctively down, catching the thing in the back of the ankle, and almost severing its foot.

The creature howled with agony, and fell, bellyflopped onto the soft soil, eyes screwed shut with pain, teeth bared. It vainly flapped its wings to try and lift itself off the ground, but Zachary was on that too, and as he tore one of the fragile webbings with the side of his blade, it was already too late.

With a bittersweet smile of triumph, he squared himself, standing ominously over the wounded and whimpering creature, and brought up his sword...

...with all his might he thrust it down, and pierced the wolf's lower back, into his stomach at the front, an audible crack signaling that he'd snapped the spine.

Another howl of pain, rage, and defeat, and the thing's eyes dimmed... at last, the fur began to fade... The tall, intimidating shape shrunk slowly to that of a normal human, and he lay there, bloody, battered, and unclothed, pale skin burning and bloodied in the firelight of the endless sunset. Clumpy blonde hair fell limply into sky blue eyes as a youthful boy looked hopelessly up into the face of his murderer. "Z-Zack...?"

Zachary's eyes went wide. Only two people called him that. His sister, and...

"Isaac...!" ...his newly fallen friend.

The boy coughed, a vile mixture of blood and saliva splattering out onto the floor below him. The sword in his back was immediately removed, only leaving a hole, a fresh flow of blood, and a strangled cry of pain left to the boy as his tear-filled eyes rolled shut in death.

"Isaac, no!" the angel cried, falling to his knees beside the man, turning him carefully over in his arms so that the limp neck allowed his head to loll back. One more raspy breath was drawn in through the cracked lips. The eyes did not open as he choked: "I... have to... tell him..."

And the body went cold.

---

**Authors Ending Note Thingy:** Whoo! I hope you liked it. Sorry for switching up the names for you, too... just following the rules of the world. If I use it, I have to abide by it. Well, one of them is a bit easier than the other right now. I promise I'll do my best to make it obvious who all the people are. If not... drop me a question in a review, I'll be glad to answer. I'm not trying to keep their FF7 IDs a secret. XD


	2. Chapter 1

**Author's Beginning Note Thingy:** Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you ridiculously much to the original author of the manga this is based on: Rone. She has sent me the prettiest picture of the demon currently known as Isaac from last chapter... remember, the one Zack wasted? I'm linking it here, if you wanna see, go to http: - / - / - www . deviantart . com/deviation /41736650 . As before, take out all hyphens and spaces, and if you like, then STOP, don't go ANY FARTHER, but hit the back button to chapter 1 and get the link to her manga from the Beginning Note Thingy there, and read, read, read!

Anyway... fic start 'n' all that...

---

Love was growing quite anxious about this situation. Her brother hadn't been himself for weeks now... and it wasn't getting any better, no matter what she did. It had started, quite obviously, right after Isaac fell. She didn't know the boy very well, but she knew that he and her brother were close. But then... suddenly just last week, it had gotten much, much worse right overnight.

He'd been out on a trip to the Land of Sunset, and as usual she'd been worried. She asked him to take care, knowing that he usually got careless when he was emotional... the very reason for the reckless need for fighting of his.

But when he came back...

...he'd refused to speak to her. Didn't even say a word. Just stumbled back into the house in a daze, and collapsed on the first surface he saw: the livingroom couch.

At first she thought he'd gotten hurt, but after checking him over and finding no blood but a demon's, she just congratulated him on a successful kill. That was when the tears began.

And they lasted for days afterward. Three, to be exact, relentlessly... long after she'd expected them to dry up. She wondered how he slept at night... or if he did.

"Zack..." she finally asked that morning, when he was picking at his breakfast. He'd calmed down considerably, but still had not spoken a word, "...won't you tell me what happened?"

He looked up at her with that weak, defeated, emptiness in his eyes, that look that made her want to crack. She almost winced at it, but managed to suppress it until he turned his eyes back down.

"And why do you keep saying all those crazy things like that its raining...?" she asked, and he flinched as if physically hurt by her comment. Looking down at her breakfast, Love didn't even notice, "You know it's always light here. Always." at this point she looked him in the eyes, concerned, like a mother would, "No more rain."

And like a fussy child, he just made a pained face, a half-muffled sound, and receded away, shrinking into the couch cushion behind him.

"Zack, please... your halo's dim..." she worriedly urged, motioning to the fading light circle that hovered behind Zachary's head. "Please tell me. You know you can trust me with anything, I'm your sister." Though every time she said it, she wasn't sure of it... that's what they had been told when they climbed out of the cold waters in front of Heaven together. 'You came out together, so you're siblings'. Well, made sense... sort of. And they'd grown close after all.

"Zacky..." she tried, getting up from her own plate, and moving to sit over by him, extending a pale arm around his shoulders, "Zacky..." she cooed again, soothing voice coming from close to his ear. "Please don't cry again." she frowned, rosy lips pushed down.

He shook his head, and leaned over, resting on her shoulder, and she gladly took him in her arms as one of his deft hands entangled itself in her fragile honeybrown hair. "Aww, Zacky... please... you can tell me..."

"I killed him." he wept. Not a comforting first words out of the man. Love frowned again.

"Who?"

"Isaac... he was a demon... I killed him."

Her eyes went wide with a gasp. "Oh, Zacky, no..." she breathed.

"Yes." he choked, one hand fisting around the blue ribbon holding her ponytail up. "Yes, I did. I killed him, I killed Isaac!"

She didn't want to say he wasn't Isaac anymore... she knew about the strange rituals of demons, changing their identities... brainwashing wasn't even out of the question, but of course she, nor any of the angels, knew for themself. "We'll see him again..." she tried instead.

"No!" Zachary cried, "No, we won't. He'll come back, yes, he'll look like himself, in a few months maybe, but it won't be him, it won't be the same! He... he won't remember... who I am..."

She opened her mouth for a response, as she felt that for this she needed to come up with one fast, but nothing came... and luckily, she was saved by a knock on the door. Looking worriedly back down at her brother with her own stained-glass periwinkle eyes, she asked, "Are you going to be okay? Here? For just a minute?"

He looked up at her with an expression that screamed 'no'. But it wasn't as if she had a choice. "I'll be right back." the girl said, patting his shoulder, standing, and making her way down the hall, taking care not to trip on the long white skirts. Making herself presentable to whatever public was waiting outside, she pulled the ribbon out, tossing the fabric onto a shelf as she passed, and let her wavy hair fall freely down just in time to turn the knob...

"Seth!" she said with a sigh, relieved to see another familiar face here.

"Love." he replied, stern green eyes looking down at her with a strictly businesslike, not friendly glare in them. "May I come in?" it was a demand more than a request, and who was she to refuse.

"Of course." the woman stepped aside and let him in. He sighed, took one step in, and spotted the very thing he was after almost immediately.

"Ah, there..." he smiled strongly, though the normally easygoing expression was not without its predatory hints this time. "Love I have been recommended by the council to, er..." he glanced down at her, cold meeting a worried and apprehensive expression. He sighed, and lazily swept silver hair over a black-robe clad shoulder, "They want me to pick up Zachary... they believe that he may be..." trailing off again, and switching his tone again, "...suffering horribly. And in need of some professional attention."

Zachary flinched at that, and slunk back like a wounded animal, halfway around the door he'd so recently appeared out of.

Love frowned, protectively taking a small step to place herself in between Seth and her brother, "What's wrong with the attention I'm giving him?"

"Love, please..." Seth urged with a lazy, bored countenance, as if he'd had this discussion a thousand different times, and the result was inevitably always the same. "...don't argue with the wishes of the council... and myself personally." he put a spidery-fingered hand over his heart as if to emphasize the statement somehow. "Please, I understand your concern, but... its what's best for him."

Zachary looked skeptical, uneasily shifting back farther behind the door. Love just glanced over her shoulder at him, "What's best..." she dazedly echoed, turning reluctantly back and looking up into the stunning green eyes of her friend, "...of course. If you think it is, but..." she didn't even know why she was acting this way… why she was saying these things. She didn't want her brother, her Zachary to leave! Not for anything, then why… giving in so easily…

"Excellent." he cut in, pushing past, oblivious to her inner turmoil, a dark hunger in his actions as he advanced on the angel stuck halfway in and out the doorway. He reached out and grasped ahold of he man's elbow with a firm, unrelenting hand. "You shall be sent word." he reported to Love, while dragging the whimpering Zachary unceremoniously along behind him.

"But... Seth, wait!" she called, hurrying after, only to have the door slammed shut in her face.

She stopped, standing there, wings sagging with regret and worry as she settled deeper into the silence of the empty house. Her eyes were downcast, a hand meekly found its way to the ribbon on the shelf, and she went through the motions of tying her hair back up.

She'd always wondered a few things... she'd always wondered why Seth had the brightest, most elaborate halo in all of heaven, but seemed to be nothing more than the messenger or delivery boy of the council. She wondered why he also seemed to think that such status was not even worth mentioning, even to they, Zachary and Love, his closest friends, or so she thought... she wondered if he had other, closer, secret friends. But most of all... she wondered why he never showed his wings. It wasn't as if he didn't have them, he had to have them, but she could never once recall seeing them.

And now she was wondering something else. Where was Zack being taken? Little Zacky... true, there was no age difference... if all siblings arrived in Heaven at the same time, then all siblings, by default, were twins. But she'd always seemed the older, and more mature of them, and he accepted her authority in the household. Now he'd only been gone seconds, and it was seeming empty without him. And he'd looked so scared...

...little Zacky, taken away by cold, businesslike Seth. This was too much for her to bear.

Regretting her actions in part just the moment she stepped out the door, the girl nevertheless stood out on her front porch, and observed the faraway flying figures, close together, that were no doubt her friend and her brother.

With a determined air about her, she set her arms at her sides, looked up, unfurled her sparkling white feathers, and took flight, speeding after them, dodging and weaving between buildings, taking a secrecy in her actions that she wasn't even sure what she needed for. Oh, _now_ what was she doing? So many strange, irrational decisions today! What was wrong with her?

No… that wasn't it. There wasn't anything wrong with her, there was something wrong with Zack, and she was just seeing to it that he was going to be okay… as any sister would do. Right?

The flying was a long, long time passed. She followed the little specks at a distance, not wanting to be seen by either as she followed them to wherever they were going. The sprawling metropolis of Heaven had faded away behind her into unfamiliar, jungle-territory long ago, and she didn't even know if she could find her way back. Confusion clouded her mind, but at this point, she had no choice but to continue down her chosen path. Her destiny.

At last, though, a great white structure became visible on the horizon. A tall tower made in white marble like a needlepoint shooting into the perpetual daylit sky. She saw the figures slow, and land, and then disappear into a little hole that was a doorway at the top balcony of the building.

She dove low, skirting the tops of the trees, and circled around the back of the tower, only to shriek in surprise, and speed directly at the stone wall, pressing herself up against its cold support.

Before her, the world came to an end... gave way to a wine-dark water that she knew signified the end of the land... what lay beyond it, or /beneath/ it was a worry she never hoped to address... but as she looked up the sloping walls behind her at the tower ascending beyond sight into the sky, she wondered what the reason for such a remote location could be.

Determined still, and only slightly shaken, the girl took off into the air once more, remaining close to the beach at the end of the land, and the stone wall. She rose past many windows, not even caring to look inside them, just trying desperately to find Zack.

And when she got to the high balcony she'd seen he and Seth first disappear into, she found exactly that. But what she saw was nowhere near what she had hoped to...

Lying, helpless on ground before her was the body of her little Zacky. He was nude, and battered, shaking. Small pink scratches broke up the even lines of muscle on his pale flesh, and dark bruises were already forming all over the porcelain white.

"What?!" she shrieked, tripping over his long robe as she ran to his side, and fell to her knees by him, "Zacky! Zacky, Zacky, why?! What did they...? How did they...?" her mind was churning to try and understand what was happening. What had they done to him? What? And who? And why? And so fast! He could've only been here, alone, out of her sight for a few minutes, and then...

"Love..." she heard a deep voice mumble.

"Zacky?"

"No, not him. Love... Love, Love, Love." it chided, coming closer with very sure bootsteps.

She looked frantically up, glassy eyes meeting with the deep murky emerald of Seth's, illuminated with a wild light as he advanced, black robes gliding behind him. "I knew you would make this into a problem." he sighed, shaking his head slowly.

"You!" she cried out, jumping to her feet, and pointing a blaming finger furiously in his direction. Her hair was falling messily about her shoulders from the long flight, and her fast actions, "You did this to him?! Seth, how could you?! He's your friend!"

Not seeming to hear her, he just came closer, and she unconsciously backed up. He 'tsk'ed quietly, coming right up to, and even stepping on Zack's body, eliciting a soft cry from him as he was pressed down, "You _had_ to make things _difficult_." he sighed.

"You get off him!" she demanded wildly, her voice shrill, but her entire body shaking in the intimidating presence of the other man. "You do it now, or I'll-!"

He cut her immediately off. Not even stopping for a witty sort of 'or you'll what', but pressing his hand right up against her neck, and pushing her back onto the balcony rail. "Love..." he repeated, deeply, dangerously, hot breath fanning across her paling face, "...with the power that is invested in me..." he began, his strong fingers slowly closing around her fragile neck, and lifting her up off the ground so that her feet dangled and kicked, "...I hereby banish you from the kingdom of heaven." his face was grave, his eyes cold, and he stepped forward and held her over the edge. Her wings flapped uselessly, and legs continued to kick, as his second, free hand produced a sword. He held it out, and tossed her lightly into the air before swiping the blade across her gut, sending a splash of red liquid across his silvery bangs before she plummeted.

"Fall!" he cried, one foot rising and resting on the rail as he leaned over to watch her descent, "Fall, and burn with the demons!" he cackled, voice cracking with rage as he threw his head back and let out a bloodthirsty, vengeful laugh.

"Love!" she heard weakly whined from somewhere she couldn't see anymore as the world rushed past her, and feeling left her limbs with every drop of red that seeped out of the hole in her stomach.

"Zacky..." and with a boneshattering impact, and a splash of dark liquid, she felt the cold tides of the ocean envelop her, and everything went black.

---

**Author's Ending Note Thingy:** Fwee! Starting things fast, aren't I? XD All that in just the prologue and first chapter? So much action! Yay! And I thought this was gonna pick up slowly... okay, well I think it might slow down a bit from here... which isn't a bad thing. I hope you're all liking. Leave reviews!


	3. Chapter 2

Out of the darkness came pain. A pain like she had never felt before, for being a creature of heaven meant that the sensation was a foreign one. She became aware that her face scrunched up, contorting into a wince at the throbbing sting that had torn across her stomach. She gave a weak groan and tried to pull her heavy head up.

"You shouldn't move just yet." said a rumbling voice from in the dark, "You took quite a hard fall." the ominous statement was not without a hint of ironic amusement.

With a gasp, the girl let her head rest back, the shadows swimming, dizzying around her. "Where... where am... I?" she stammered, panicked out.

"Safe." the voice replied, stepping closer, "More so than you've ever been."

"Why is it so dark here?" she tried.

The man made a noise like a suppressed chuckle, "Because you have your eyes closed."

Both of them knew that was not what she was talking about. Even when her eyes were open, she'd seen nothing but the frightening blackness of a void, and it made her tremble even now. Angels knew nothing outside of light.

"Who are you?" she next asked, closing her eyes tight in a meek attempt to wipe away the stars of color that danced in her vision, and replace the real darkness with a self-created one.

There was no reply from the mystery voice, and so at last she forced herself to look up. Tilting her face up from the fluffy pillow, her let-down hair flowed all around her on the wide four poster bed. Upon seeing her body, she then realized that it wasn't wearing much of anything, as the sensation of the cool sheets against her bare arms and legs suddenly tingled into being over her skin.

Eyes dazedly fluttering through the thick black opacity of the air, they at last settled on an equally dark figure, swathed in a dim, but warm yellow light. Squinting to see closer, at last his specific features became painfully clear...

Perking out from within an uneven bush of short ebony bangs were two elegantly curved, serrated red horns, and just below them, also nestled in within the dark locks were his slightly pointed ears. Stunning crimson eyes stared out from the shade of his hair, piercing the darkness with their glow. A stripe of blood-colored flesh, like the stain of dark tears cut down his pale cheeks, their twins seeping from the corners of his mouth. Four thick black bands segmented his bare upper arms, folded elegantly across his chest. Long brass-colored claws extended out of each finger and rested lightly on his elbows. The rest of his body was obscured by the shadow, a lean build clad in some black fabric descending down toward the ground where clawed toes were undoubtedly the source of the light clicking on the hard floor with each shift from foot to foot.

With a strangled gasp, she sat bolt upright, wincing from the pain of the motion. The man in front of her just sighed, as if he'd been expecting such a reaction.

"De-demon!" her voice rasped, standing up on the mattress shakily, arm flailing to point at him, and eyes wild with fear.

"Yes." he hissed calmly, stepping further into the light that drifted down from the hanging lamp off the ceiling. Pale, thin-boned wings were revealed sprouting out of his back, webbed with a leathery red-violet, and a hook-tipped tail swishing back and forth behind him. One hand stretched out to the side, reaching for something still concealed by the darkness, "But first look at yourself." he said, and easily lifted out a full-length mirror, decorated around the borders in a gothic design. In it was reflected Love's painfully clear image: her brand new tail, flesh-colored and thin, her wings, not feathered, but clawed and webbed. Tiny horns just peeped over the edge of her messy bangs. Her mouth, agape, showed off pointed animalian canines.

"No!" she screamed, outraged at the picture of herself that she saw. It couldn't be her, it _couldn't_ be her! "No!!"

"I'm afraid, ye-"

"NO!!" she cut him off, shrieking, and stumbling clumsily off the bed, her feet tangling in the sheets and causing her to trip slightly. Landing hard on the ground with an involuntary grunt, she scrambled quickly back up, and looked over. The man in the shadows was quickly advancing on her, a look of concern on his features, or perhaps it was malice…

Unthinking, the girl acted on an instinct she was only beginning to understand: She turned, ran, and leapt headfirst out the wall-sized window behind her.

Plummeting fast toward the street several stories below, she briefly looked up through the whirlwind of her long brown hair to see the dark man standing with his foot on the ledge above her, looking down as she fell.

The concrete sidewalk below was rocketing up towards her, and glancing at it, the girl at once grasped exactly how horrible an idea hers was. She didn't want to die! Demon or no, and surely it was no, she didn't want to die!!

At the last second, she unfurled her wings, shooting them out to the sides to stop her fall. They parachuted, bringing her almost to a complete stop within a mere second, easier than just feathers ever could. The resulting inertia caused such a painful whiplash, and with another groan, she heaved upward with a mighty stroke, and shot off into the night sky.

Her mind swirling from the pain, the blood rushing from her feet to her head to her feet again, the strain on her wings, she didn't get far, before the flaps of her wings became too weak to sustain her, and the shaky flight turned into an awkward drop to the ground. Skidding across the merciless stone, the woman lay crumpled on the ground, sobbing softly.

"Why?" she screamed, fists balling around handfuls of hair, and beating against the ground, "Why?! Why was I cast out, why?!" she wailed, curling up with her knees against her chest on the ground.

"It's a cruel world." came a drawling voice from somewhere above her, causing her to gasp and look up in fear. "Deal with it." he said with a cruel grin, bending down slightly and holding out a hand. "But if you want, for only a small fee, I can make _all_ that go away…" he was making a distinct effort to sound seductive, for which it was no small feat for Love to be able to distinctly realize, his voice deep, and buzzing in her ears. "And trust me, love, I can take you to heaven's door."

She stared befuddled at the man… the red slashes on each cheek, the equally red-orangish hair falling messily all over his face. How did he know her name?! No… no, it must've just been a coincidence. A term of endearment, because she saw no recognition of her flaring in his gaze, the bright emerald eyes that were all too similar...

With a flinch, she looked down, "Get away from me!" and instinctively threw a hand into the air, catching him with clawed fingers across the face.

Stumbling back in surprise, the man gaped at her. "Hey!" he growled, lifting his own hand to the site of the scratches, "I was just trying to help you..." but as he looked down at the black blood staining his fingertips, a poisonous grin seeped across his thin lips revealing otherwise, "Allright, she looks good." he hissed to no-one, just as no-one began creeping out from the shadows in the alleyway...

Three of them came to surround him, and her. On the redhead's right, a tall, burly looking male, bald, and stern, his eyes hidden behind dark glasses. On his left the lean figure of a man with slicked back hair and a snakelike greed in his eyes. Circling around to the back was the shorter figure of the woman, a stunning blonde, in contrast with her navy uniform-like dress.

The redhead, advancing forward, let a maniacal hunger flare in his eyes, and peel back his lips over a too-wide grin, "Let's take her in, shall we?"

"N-no..." Love's eyes went practically glowed with fright, or maybe they just did that naturally now, a painfully innocent, pale blue amidst the overwhelming black pooling here. "No, no..." she pleaded, sliding back along the hard ground to pin herself up against the wall of the building behind her. She closed her eyes tight, folding battered wings around herself almost like they might form a protective shell from the world outside, saving her from its troubles.

This really was hell... it had to be. It was the only thing a place so vile could be. And for the life of her she couldn't imagine why she would be here, and a demon among it no less. Yes, a demon about to be done gods knew what to by her _own kind_. Oh, the thought of calling them that now just made her sick. Perhaps that was why they wanted to hurt her so much... she was new, still held within her the stubborn fire of an angel that they were just longing to quench with their own dark waters. But such evil was difficult to comprehend nonetheless. Just like the starless sky above her, like the space behind her eyelids, and like the waters she thought she had earlier drowned in, there was no light here.

She felt a hand touch an exposed joint on her wing, and looked up into the fierce eyes of the blonde she-devil. Opening her mouth to scream, as if it would have done any good, she was nonetheless cut off as the blonde girl was sent crashing to the floor, a small shape landing roughly on top of her.

The three men behind stepped back in surprise, and were promptly swept off their feet with a fluid strike of what could only be someone's tail. Two new forms entered the frightened girl's vision now, picking her up firmly, but gently by the elbows, and pulling her to her feet.

"You better take care of yourself." said the shorter, more feminine of the two new arrivals, turning to deal a deft high-kick into the face of the redheaded demon that had been trying to stagger to his feet, "Us pre-metas gotta watch out for eachother."

"Wh-" she glanced at her, bewildered, as the taller blonde man standing at the short burgundy-haired girl's side turned as well and knocked one of the assailants up against the other wall with a well-placed stab of his tail.

"Damnit, don't just stand there like an idiot." he growled, reaching forward to grip her around the waist, and sling her over a shoulder.

Limp from surprise, Love did nothing but to let him lift her, and take off. She gasped and gripped on tightly to the back of his shirt at the sudden rising into the air. Looking down, she saw this man's companion was not far behind. Together, they glided along over the rooftops until her new 'captors' decided it was safe to put her back down.

Resting the girl gently against the ledge of a high rooftop, they stepped back and took a look at her. Likewise, the newly-fallen found her eyes fixed on her... kidnappers? Rescuers? She didn't know what to call them.

"My, you are fresh aren't you?" said the girl in a sing-song voice, "How long?"

"H-how long what?" Love stammered.

"How long have you been in hell, of course!" she said with a slight hop on her heels, and proud flare of her lavender wings.

Blinking, Love inadvertently raised her hand and rubbed the back of her head, "I'm... not sure..." she said. Why was she even talking to these people?! To these demons! Like her actions back in heaven, she didn't really fully understand what she was doing, "Maybe a couple hours?"

The girl let out a melodic laugh, "Well, wow, did I ever call that!" she grinned triumphantly and turned to her taller, older companion. "What do you think? Introductions in order?" She immediately looked back, her short hair bobbing around at about chin-level to frame her face. Between her bouncy nature and the strange sparkle in her steely eyes, it was easy to tell that she might just have some sort of attention-span problem. It almost made Love laugh.

"I'm Doubt." she said, pointing to herself, "And this here is Shear." she indicated her friend, who seemed somewhat disinterested, to say the least. Even bored didn't seem too strong a word, as he was lighting up a cigarette, and offered only a gruff 'hmph' in her general direction as recognition.

"What's your name?" Doubt asked, bending over, getting right up in her newfound-acquaintance's face. "Don't be shy."

"Wha-? Ah... um..." looking around nervously, she at last met eyes with the demon staring her down, "...Love." she answered.

The grinning face immediately fell, and with a smack Doubt's hand hit her forehead.

In a display of similar shock, the cigarette fell from Shear's mouth, and with an ugly frown he stepped forward, pushing his smaller friend aside to look into the face of the girl still sitting on the ground. "Allright, what kind of dumbass incompetent mentor do _you_ have? Love? _Love_? He can't let you go parading around hell with a name like that!" he threw his arms up into the air. "In fact, if you've only been here a few hours, he can't let you go parading around hell at all! Damnit, even we've been here a few weeks."

Shrinking back meekly, Love turned her eyes to the ground. This was all so confusing, and hitting her so much at once. "Who... who... what's a mentor?"

With an exasperated sigh, Shear shook his head, pulling out another cigarette before tucking the pack under a strap in his goggles. "Mentor tends to be the first person you see when you get to hell. You know, there's gotta be someone to scoop your unconscious ass off the ground when you land here. It's first come first serve, volunteer service, you know?"

She shook her head slowly, not wary of his anger, apparently very quick in the coming, but really not understanding any of it.

He glared hardly, and opened his mouth to try again, when Doubt forcefully pushed him aside. "Okay, look. So it's like this." she began, "For one reason or another, you got kicked outta heaven and sent here. Time to deal with it." her eyes narrowed as she saw the look of disappointment on Love's face... though to her relief it was quickly fading. In a moment she continued, "When you hit the floor, you're usually out. Down for the count for a while. A fall from there to here isn't gonna leave anyone in prime condition. So we've got these guys, and gals, called mentors who take you in, patch you up, and teach you the lay of the land so you don't get into any trouble. Like you just did."

She slowly nodded, understanding now. "I... um..." swallowing, and looking away, she meekly muttered, "...by the way... thank you for hel-helping me out back there. It was very... kind of you..."

A look of incredible excitement spread quickly over Doubt's features, "No worries!" she assured, "Don't mention it at all. Now the only dilemma is as to how to get you home. Who's your mentor again?" she cocked her head to one side.

Love chewed her lip slightly, "I... I don't know. I kind of... ran away from him."

Shear barked a laugh, but quickly suppressed it after a glare from his companion. She then abruptly turned back to Love, holding out a hand to help her up. "Well, then, we'll just have to find him for you."

Looking up at her, Love took a moment to consider... then slowly reached up, meeting palms with the girl, and taking the offered assistance. Pulled to her feet, she gazed at the ground intently for a moment. Their rescue, the explanations to a poor, lost, ignorant, the warm smiles... maybe, even in hell, maybe there _was_ just a little light here.

---

**Author's Ending Note Thingy:** Fwoo, long one. Okay, new characters. Yay! Once again, if you're having any trouble putting together faces to names, just drop me a review and ask me (If you're not having any trouble, drop me a review anyway. XD). I'd tell them outright here, but its more fun having you figure it out.


	4. Chapter 3

"You're freaking kidding me!" an extremely taken-aback Doubt cried, "He? _He's_ your mentor?"

Love looked down at the ground, not quite grasping what had just happened... With the help of her two new friends, or so she supposed them to be, the girl had found her way back to the building she had originally jumped out of. Upon closer inspection of the outside, it was revealed to be a huge mansion, typical of the rundown, haunted clichés one might read about in a book.

Together, the three approached the looming front of the leaning house, passing through a vast and empty green yard. A fearsome carved silver wolf-head glared out at them from the center of the front door, a thick, heavy ring hanging from between the fangs in its mouth. With tension ripe in the air around them, Love had timidly reached out, pulled, and let go of the door-knocker, a deep, loud crack resounding as metal hit wood.

And then, creepiest moment yet, the door had swung easily open, emitting that ever-cliché low moan as it moved on its rusty hinges. By this time, the smaller demon was practically grappling Shear's arm, much to his displeasure.

That was when the wearied, worried face of the demon of Love's earlier encounter peeked out, staring around at the three of them. Recognition finally dawned in his eyes as they fell on the newly-fallen-angel.

That was when Doubt had cried out.

And now they were in quite an awkward scene, Doubt with a look of fangirlish admiration on her young face, Shear with a sly, broad grin, and the demon in the door staring out indifferently at the crowd.

Love shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, standing somewhere in between the two parties. "Um..." she finally began, after several moments of uncomfortable silence, "...no offense meant, but..." she looked up with wide, apologetic eyes on the dark man in front of her, before turning to her companions behind, "...what's so special about him being my mentor?"

Doubt sputtered, searching for words for a long moment, "Wh-why... he... he's...!" she made a few frantic hand motions, unable to come up with the proper words.

"Very busy." the man cut in for her, sending a sharp glare in the girl's direction, and effectively silencing her. "As you two can undoubtedly see, I have a lot of work ahead of me in training my new pupil... so please..." he glanced to the nonplussed looking Shear, and continued, "...I thank you for escorting her safely back, but there's more important business right now that needs attending to." he then looked sternly at Love, and she hung her head shamefacedly.

"A-allright." the stammering demon-girl backed off, literally receding from the front steps, "I'll, uh... we'll catch you later, sometime... L-" she stopped on the name, glancing curiously at the newly-fallen girl, "er, you." she awkwardly finished. She turned around at last tugging on Shear's sleeve. Tapping some ash from his cigarette onto the stones of the sidewalk, he then also sauntered off behind her.

Love was silently beckoned inside, and slowly walked in, only to have the door snapped shut promptly after.

"That was a bold move up there." the demon's voice rumbled, while Love strained to see his black-clad form as it swiftly traveled farther into the darkness. She thought she could make out the shape of his hand pointing to the ceiling above their heads, and no doubt the second or third floor above that where the bedroom was located.

"I-I'm sorry..." she breathed, hurrying after, finding herself now following this strange man down a long, dark hallway. "I was a little startled, as you can imagine."

He seemed to chuckle at that. "I always forget how much of a... culture shock this can be to your type." he murmured.

"My type?" she echoed, almost offended.

He slowed, and glanced over his shoulder, evident by a single red eye gleaming forth out of the blackness. "Newly fallens." he explained, turning back around and picking up the pace, "You'll get used to it later."

"Excuse me, sir, but who are you?" she softly demanded, finding her frightened voice again as she hurried after.

The man stopped, and turned around, as now two fiery eyes blazed out... but not for long. A light flicked on, causing the girl to squint in the sudden change to brightness. "Call me Chaos." he explained, deciding himself that this would be sufficient for now, as he quickly continued onward, "Which brings me to my first point that we'll address..." he said, calmly pulling a chair aside for her, seating himself in one of his own.

Love slowly sat down without bidding, staring around and noting that they seemed to be in a kitchen... not in any way different from that of her own home back in Heaven, except for the light fixture in the ceiling, and the lack of natural sun pouring in from the windows. For the moment, all she could see was darkness outside.

"Your name." the man named Chaos called back her attention, "What is it?"

"Uh-..." she paused, remembering what was told to her by Shear not an hour earlier, "Well, at this point I'm... not sure I'm supposed to say it." she looked around the kitchen again, as if searching for some irregularity in it that would remind her this was Hell. "I guess culture-shock was the right terminology. The two who brought me here were kind of... amused by it." her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. She hadn't realized her name was that funny...

Chaos frowned marginally, "That was immature of them... yet good advice nonetheless. Your name." he repeated, "You'll have to change it. No-one down here is too keen on being reminded of their time beyond the pearly gates, and so somebody, who knows how long ago, got the bright idea of deciding to change his name. Needless to say, the tradition stuck." he smirked, long brass claws idly toying with his hair as he spoke. Love found him, at the moment at least, alltogether captivating. Such a strange being to be down here in Hell... He seemed nice enough, if not a little bitter...

"Why stay with something that's been assigned to you by people who don't care." he went on, proving her earlier thoughts, "So whatever you were before, it's got to go. You're not an angel now, it'd be hypocrisy to keep your angel name."

"Love?" she questioned, as if making sure that this was the name he was, in fact, referring to.

The man suppressed a slight roll of the eyes, and nodded, resting his chin in his hand soon thereafter, "Yes. That. And don't look to me for suggestions, the choice is entirely up to you." he gave the ghost of a small reassuring smile, "That's entirely the point."

"Chaos..." she repeated, trying out his name on her tongue. "But how am I supposed to come up with something right on the spot? What if I choose wrong..." she looked down, worried, "This is so much pressure."

He shook his head slowly, "Take your time." the man shrugged, "We're dead, we've all got plenty of it."

Love almost laughed, "Sir..."

"Chaos." he stressed, "Never 'sir', or 'Mr.', or anything silly like that. We're in Hell... I may be your senior, and more experienced, but I'm still your equal."

She smiled at that, "Well then... can I... ask you a question?" she murmured.

The man thought about this for a moment, "Anything you like." his voice was barely hesitant, keeping up his former air of confidence.

"What was your name in Heaven?" she asked, "As an angel?"

The man flinched, staring at her with some mix of offense for such a demand on such personal information, and curious inquiry. He raised an eyebrow and calmly asked, "Why?"

The girl blushed, her pale cheeks tinting the faintest pink in the washed out light. "I'm sorry. If you don't want to tell me..." she shrugged, and looked down, "I just thought it might help me choose."

"It's fine." he waved her off, shaking his head slowly, "I was..." he sighed and glanced down, staring out from behind his bushy bangs, "...Cain."

She nodded slowly, "Cain." the girl tried it too on her lips, "I like it. I hope you don't mind..."

He made a bit of a face, then sighed again, "No... no, I suppose I don't."

Her face lit up with a smile, which somehow melted all his doubts away. He wondered about this for a moment... perhaps it was her innocence, or her beauty. She had that, at least, without a doubt.

"So..." he began, leaning back in his chair and draping his arms over its back and the edge of the table, "...so, Love..." he breathed, "...any closer to your decision?"

The girl looked up from where she'd been pondering her bare feet, a truly contemplative expression on her already grave features, "Yes..." she said, voice distant, eyes unseeing as they rose up toward Chaos, "Lust."

---

**Author's Ending Note Thingy:** Oh, yes, make fun of Cloud's Advent Children door-knocker-esque shoulder-decoration-thingy, will I? Ah, but I just couldn't resist... XD I'd want a door knocker like that if I had any say in it. Okay, anyone know of their own accord who Love/Lust is? Whattabout Chaos? You should… ah well, ask me if you need to.


	5. Chapter 4

In the recent weeks, Lust had been growing quickly accustomed to Hell. Only once or twice did she question her quick adaptation, always finding it better not to ask, because she could never find herself a satisfying answer... and she was much happier going through her days in ignorant bliss.

Time passage and her slowly growing pool of knowledge had come with numerous questions... things like: "Why is it always dark here?" she'd idly remarked, while looking up at the black velvet folds of star-dotted sky.

"Why is it always bright in Heaven?" Chaos had responded, in his frustrating habit of answering one of her questions with one of his own. "The truth is that no-one in Heaven or down here really knows much about the way the world works." he'd responded, "Things are the way they are just because they've always been that way. Heaven is light, Hell is dark, angels have halos, demons have horns. You die, you come back with no memory. It's simple, but confounding, don't you think?" despite his occasional frustration at her preferred ignorance, the man occasionally had a glint of perked interest in his eye at some of her fresh outlooks.

That time had made her think... you die, you come back with no memories, in the milky cool pools nestled among the shores of cloud hovering beside the doors of Heaven. It made the whole concept of dying seem much less important... it made her wonder what kept some of the weeping widows of dead angel warriors from lurking by the pool waiting for their beloved to spring up from its depth.

It made her think of Zack.

The poor boy... all alone. And her last sights of him, or of Heaven in general hadn't been nice ones. It made her bite her lower lip until it went white or bled, and turn away, holing herself up for whatever duration of the day was left from when she'd thought of it.

Heaven was always light... but not for Zack. Just before then, just before he had been taken away, he'd talked about the rain. She didn't know what he meant, but he didn't sound happy about it. Still, though, even now her mind was doubting it. Rain? In Heaven? How? It wasn't possible... how could one man see an endless sky of grey and cold downpours, while the rest of the shining land's population saw only cloudless blue and the sun?

It made her wonder about Isaac. Zack had said he'd killed him, and it seemed to her that Isaac was a key element in this all. The little blonde angel boy had been such close friends with her brother... And then he fell. Neither of them had expected it, but one day Isaac just... wasn't around anymore. They had heard the verdict for sure from the consoling words of Seth, and from then it seemed Zachary had never been the same.

At first it was just loneliness, the normal, terrible sadness and quiet that came from losing a friend. When Love, as she was still called back then, had suggested that perhaps he get out of the house, he had gone straight to the Land of Sunset, and was scarred beyond repair the moment he returned.

But now that Lust knew the truths of Hell, it all seemed a little more mysterious. Horns and halos, feathers and tails, yes, there were slight differences between demons and angels, but whenever she looked in the mirror from that first day forward, she always saw herself staring back out. It wasn't as if Zack wouldn't have been able to recognize his old friend... it wasn't as if a new name of his would have figured into the equation at all.

Then there was Chaos, with the peculiar bone structure of his wings, the brazen sheen to his claws, the spike on his tail and unusual markings on his face. Surely, though he couldn't have been that much different now than he looked in Heaven. When she closed her eyes and pictured, say, Zack, with those same markings, she knew that she would still be able to recognize him.

Her last explanation seemed to be yet another aspect of this new world that was more complicated than it looked. Once she'd gotten here, and seen the accommodating humanity of most of Hell's residents, out went all the legends she'd heard back in heaven, the frightening stories that described the demons being horrible, disgusting monsters.

But still... she wondered.

"Cain." the girl asked one morning, coming downstairs from her personal bedroom to breakfast, which was already waiting, "What's... pre-meta?"

He looked up from where he'd been silently examining a scratch in the wood of the table, his striking eyes lazily floating around the area of space she took up. They saw without really seeing every aspect of her, feet, to wings, to newly-bought blue ruffled dress, to neatly twisted-back hair bun, yet his lips remained sealed above the answer.

"I... I heard it from Doubt and Shear." she explained, justifying the sudden intrusion, remembering back to the first night...

_'Us pre-metas gotta watch out for eachother'_ the girl had said.

...she had, in fact, run into the two of them several times since. They had made fast friends, the unlikely pair and her. All being fairly new, none, for some reason, having ever run across one another back in Heaven.

"Pre-meta..." the dark demon mused, the word gliding out of his mouth in his consistent and even voice. "It's a... I suppose, a functional term referring to demons like you. It refers to the metamorphosis, thus meta..." it sounded to Lust as if he was reading out of a dictionary... but he seemed to be reciting his own words with that admirably articulate mode of speech often used for much more mundane matters, even, such as which kinds of fruit to pick up from the grocery store.

"A demon's metamorphosis you have no doubt heard much of in Heaven... it is the form we take on, most often, for battle... though not all metas are equally suited for that." So the rumors were true, she thought. "You will see, if you have not already seen, a variety of creatures wandering around Hell." he continued, "Some will be in their full-meta, where they might or might not resemble a human being in the least, some in their half-meta, which maintains a human's characteristics as well as selective ones of their other form, depending on the person's preference and degree of control in the shift. There will also be those like me, who, though they have already experienced their metamorphosis, choose for their own reasons to remain entirely human in appearance... or..." he glanced down at the unique golden claws that slid out of the skin of his fingers, "...as close as we can get. Any metamorphosis leaves it's signature markings on the being who experienced it." he drew a finger carefully down the red stripe that dripped from his eye. "Pre-meta are easily recognizable because they are devoid of any such distinctions." he pointed to her plain face, small horns, average wings, and winding thin tail. "You will gain them later. After meta."

Lust couldn't help but notice how painfully obvious his detachment from the explanation was. Without being strained, he seemed mechanical in his delivery, as if this were a question he was used to answering, but did not delight in doing so. Not in the least. She let the matter slip silently into the back of her mind as she raised another question.

"Cain, why was Doubt so surprised to see you that night?" she asked him.

The man smirked, confidence and pride returning to his until-then blank features. "Because I am renown around Hell as one of its most talented angel slayers."

She couldn't help but gasp at that one. "Angel slayers...?" the woman dumbfoundedly repeated.

"If you don't like it..." he looked up, almost dangerously at her.

She shook her head, "I... I don't know." she sighed, and turned her eyes down. She hated the heated rays of blame those two red eyes directed at her when they stared like that.

"It pays good money." he said, going back to looking at the same crack in the table, now toying at its edges with his claw, "The best job you can hope to get... the most dangerous too. You need patience, practice, prowess..."

"...and a meta form." she sighed, leaning forward over her breakfast of cinnamon toast, suddenly not hungry. Her elbows rested on the hard surface, her chin in her hands.

"Not true." Chaos said, his face slowly being overtaken by a sly grin as he leaned forward with an eagerness Lust had not seen before. "I myself only fight in human form." he said.

"Why...?"

But he never gave an answer to her question, instead standing and sliding his long-empty plate into the sink, bending over just slightly as he passed her on the way out of the room, to say, "Eat up." and then he was gone.

Lust had done alot more thinking that day. After having only a single bite of the dry toast, she had gone back to bed... not to sleep, but just to lie there amidst the silken covers... and think. She sighed, rolling over to get comfortable several times, tangling herself among the sheets, toying with her hair, chewing on her lip until it was raw, and at last, as the street lights, forever fighting the shadow, were dimming to give off the soft glow of mid-evening outside, getting up and emerging.

Chaos had seated himself in a squishy red armchair that was situated in the center of a large livingroom, watching some flashing images of a television on which the volume was turned down far too low.

"If I go to the Land of Sunset to fight, will I run into my friends from before?" she asked, sneaking up behind him, though he didn't even jump as she made her presence known.

"Perhaps." he said dully, not bothering to look back, "That depends... on if they fought there, if you intend to fight them..."

"I don't." she quickly said, biting her lip again, wincing at the hurt, "My brother... he met one of his old friends who came back as a demon, and he..." she trailed off, before adding on quietly, "I would never do that to one of my friends."

"But the question is..." began Chaos, at last now turning around and staring out at her, "...would they never do that to you?"

Speechless for a moment, the girl's shocked look hardened into one of determination quickly enough, "No." she said assuredly, though herself seriously doubting her next statement. "It's my brother that I want to see." Would she see him, though? Was it possible? Had he escaped from that horrible, and truly still confusing circumstance she had regrettably left him in? It wasn't as if she had any other friends left up there anyway... Seth couldn't be trusted anymore.

Chaos, though, failed to catch her inner thinkings, but nodded, and stood. "I will take you to the Land of Sunset... if you wish."

Straightening, and plastering a small forced smile to her face, the girl looked to him with a mirror-nod. "Let's go."

---

**Author's Ending Note Thingy**: Probably a tough chapter to read... pretty boring, I'd think. Next one will be much more interesting, I promise... you'll see. Yeah, this was basically a 'getting you to understand everything out of the context of the original manga' kind of dealie (long name, I know) XD. Unfortunately for me, Rone's plot is more complicated, and achieves a greater depth than I even want to reach... I think this is all the nitty-gritty information I'll be throwing at you for a while. Blah, one last thing... there's been an itsy bitsy bit of confusion as to who everybody is, and I promised I wouldn't be deliberately keeping it a secret, so just to set the record straight for now: Love/Lust is Lucrecia, not Aeris. Sorry, Aeris fans, though I'll tell you now that she does show up as a bit part later! Please keep reading, taas, and see you next chapter. Please review!

P.S. thingamajigger: Sorry for taking so long to update! I write this story on my laptop, and my wireless card has been dead for a while, so I wasn't able to post this new chapter. Also… I'm participating in an international novel writing contest this month… the challenge is to write a 50,000 word story in just the month of November. As you can probably imagine, it's REALLY hard, and taking up a lot of my time. I'm sorry for the very large length between this update and the last, and I apologize prematurely for the long wait there will be between this and the next one. You won't be expecting anything new to come from me until at least the end of the month. Thank you all so much for reading, though, and please leave a review!


	6. Chapter 5

The flight was silent, making Lust fidget uncomfortably, and wobble in the air. Chaos was obviously quite familiar with the path, after all, he was an angel slayer. She idly wondered how many angels he'd killed, and which ones. If she recognized any of them...

She was broken out of her thoughts when Chaos came to a sudden halt in front of her. His wings full out to the sides, and slightly curled to mimic a parachute, the demon slowly drifted down until his feet touched the sidewalk, landing with an inherent grace, while Lust merely furled hers and plummeted to stand beside him. There was something different about him, she thought while staring up at the looming figure that stood over her. That grace was uncharacteristic of a demon... even she was already picking up on the erratic movements and drastic motions that seemed to come naturally now, yet he retained his almost angelic nature. She wondered why...

"There are a few groundrules." the man began, his deep, underused voice vibrating in her ears. She merely nodded, unable to come up with a verbal response.

"You stay with me. No matter what." he said, voice stern, raising a brass-clawed finger, "Second, you see anything. _Anything_... another demon, fires forbid an angel, you go _back_ through the portal immediately and wait until after I deal with it." his voice took on just the slightest hint of emotion, the first Lust had heard from him... ever. "Do you understand."

She nodded again, her voice stolen away.

"Allright, then." he said, turning. Up ahead, the road stopped. A spiked iron rail circumvented the city, but gave way for a small gap where an artful ramp sloped upward into the sky.

Lust squinted in the dark to see. Up above, a stylized metal monolith, with cuts out of the top that so that the entire structure took the shape of elongated demonic wings. Up at the very top stark contrast against the silver of the ramp was what could only be the portal. It was difficult to see, dark on dark, and the only way she could make it out was that it was the only part of the sky, a perfectly circular cut, that didn't have any stars.

"Follow me." her attention was drawn back to the man beside her at the sounding of his deep voice, and with one flap of the massive wings, he rose up into the sky. Rapidly, she followed, and they both followed the curve of the ramp up, like the rails of a train, sending them rocketing into the sky. Before she knew it, the swirling vortex swallowed her up. For a moment, she was afraid, wanted to scream, but stifled it... and soon enough, she came out the other side.

A war-torn landscape greeted her there, with a violet and copper sky. The ground consisted of many floating islands above a blood-dark sea. Rising like a bullet out of a whirlpool situated in the center there, their heads soon bobbed above the large chunks of land, so that they looked down on them from above. Huge gouges had ravaged the earth in some places, and there were the occasional littered bits of bone: wing joints and skulls, both human and inhuman. She shuddered at the sight, but Chaos seemed entirely unaffected. He'd seen it before, there was nothing new. "Welcome to the Land of Sunset. It lies on the threshold of Heaven and Hell, of day and night. This is the battleground where our war is fought."

Lust nodded, trying to take it all in, trying to remember, while also trying to scan the land and commit it to memory. The latter task was very hard, considering that each island, barring size and the occasional rock formation, was identical.

"It's not often, actually, than you run into a fight here." Chaos mused, mostly to himself while his eyes remained on the sky. "The chances of one demon and one angel just happening to arrive at the same time are... minimal."

"So I won't find Zack?" Lust's voice hard returned, though it was pitched higher, accusation and hurt residing there.

Chaos turned to her, his flight slowed. He heaved a sigh and raised a hand to his temple, as if to rub out a headache... at the hard look in his pupil's eyes, he quickly covered, running a hand through his short black hair instead. "The odds are very much against you. You would have to live here for flames know how long until he decided to saunter down here again."

"Then that's what I'll do!" she said suddenly, stopping, hovering where she was, hands on her hips, a hard stare in her eyes.

"Think, for a moment, about what you are saying." the male demon's voice was raised, and he too stopped and turned around, "You are a spoiled, inexperienced pre-meta, and you think you could handle _living_ out here for months at a time? Any angel would come by and snap your neck like it was nothing!"

Tears were welling up in her eyes. Aside from the fact that this was her first fight with her mentor, and that she had recognized the idiocy in her own idea the second it had come out of her mouth, it was beginning to sink in that she would... never see Zack again. Providing he somehow escaped his terrible fate up in that tower she'd last seen him in, it wasn't as if he would be particularly apt to saunter down to the Land of Sunset again.

Chaos' fury cooled immediately, then, and he seemed to get a grip on himself. For the briefest of moments his eyes went wide, almost in shock for his own actions. He cupped a hand over his mouth, but it soon fell back to his side. "Forgive me..." the man shamefully muttered, slouching in his stance a little bit.

"Zack..." Lust's voice shuddered. The violent wind was carrying her away, as she slowly drifted farther and farther from Chaos. She didn't seem to mind, however, and let it. The tears spilled over their edge, moistening her face, but as soon as she felt their hot touch on her cheek, her expression sharpened. "I have to find him!" she insisted, "I _have_ to. He's my brother, and I-" Chaos opened his mouth to interrupt, but she cut him off with a shout, "You don't think I can do it! I _know_ you don't think I'm strong enough to fight the angels yet, but damnit, I am! And if I'm wrong, well then I'm better off dead! I'd rather be back in heaven with Zack than stay a demon in hell with you!"

She twirled, the skirts of her periwinkle dress swirling around her fluidly in the air, and sped off, diving away from him for extra momentum. She needed a hasty getaway... she didn't want to see him, to face him right now. But where could she go? She didn't _want_ to be in hell either... that meant she'd stay right here.

_And wait for Zack._ the girl told herself.

"Lust, wait!" Chaos' frantic call rebounded off the floating rocks. She only snorted, by now far out of sight. Her wings furled, and she came to a dusty landing on one of the islands, and curled up, hugging her legs to her chest, her chin on her knees.

_I'll wait allright._ she bitterly thought, blinking away another surge of salty water from her eyes, _But not for you._ her face turned heavenward, at the twilight sky that awaited her there, yet strangely enough... she thought she saw a thin beam of light. But where did it come from? Her eyes followed it in the sky above until it went out, blocked by a shadow... but she'd already seen the source.

A dark formation of cloud looming in the sky twisted and swirled into a tunnel, and from out of the center of that tunnel a dark shape was falling...

"The portal into heaven..." she breathed, getting quickly to her feet, clawed toes gripping the loose, uneven ground. _Maybe that means I can go back!_ but out of sheer curiosity, she watched the being as it fell... had someone else, like her, been cast out? No, no it couldn't be that. Silvery wings fanned out behind them, and they fell purposefully, face-up, until their feet lightly touched the ground. The wings fell limply back to their sides, and settled down their back.

_No, not wings..._ she thought immediately, _...hair! Silver hair! Seth!_

Seth never showed his wings...

She took a step forward, then stopped. Her last memory of Seth...

_"...I hereby banish you from the kingdom of heaven." his voice was so cold. His grip on her neck was crushing, she couldn't breathe... and then at last he lifted her up by it, tossed her casually over the tower's edge._

_There was a swipe of pain across her stomach, a waterfall of blinding red. Her robes felt wet._

_"Fall, and burn with the demons!" the mighty angel roared above her as she obediently tumbled down, down, down..._

With a soft cry she abruptly shook her head. "No!" why was she thinking of this now? Seth was... Seth was her friend!

_Seth cast me out._

Seth was just doing his job...

_Seth took Zachary._

...but only to help him. He meant to help Zack!

"Ahhh!" she cried out, bending over, clutching tightly at her hair... she had such a _splitting_ headache. "No, no, no! I won't fight him I..."

_"You see anything. Anything... another demon, fires forbid an angel, you go back through the portal immediately and wait until after I deal with it."_ Chaos' words, now, rang out in her memory.

_'Deal with it'... that's right. Chaos told me to..._ she turned and faced the ridge on her island, preparing to dive off into the oceanlike abyss below, find the way back into hell through there, do as she was instructed, but again, she stopped. _Chaos is going to... kill Seth, and I'm just going to let him?! I'm even thinking like a demon now!_ she lamented, turning stubbornly again to face the angel, far away. _No, I won't give in to that..._ "I won't give in..." she repeated under her breath, but out loud, bending her knees slightly before jumping into the air, her wings shooting out to the sides as she glided off the edge of the rock, towards Seth. _I have to tell him. I have to warn him what's going to happen if he stays here..._

"Seth!" she called out, still gliding. She was much closer now... she could make out individual features: his shining boots, always polished to perfection, his perfectly ironed, straight black robes, his long flowing hair, those mesmerizing emerald eyes... "Seth, I have to..."

...his silver sword.

Her next word was drowned out by a cough of blood splattering out of her mouth. She wasn't even within arm's reach. That vicious seven-foot blade stuck a good foot-and-a-half out her back, and had impaled straight through the middle of her gut. A little bit of dark liquid splattered across the man's face and hair, and he laughed softly, swiping a hand through the silver locks to brush it away.

"S-Seth...?" she stammered pathetically, her wings flopping to their sides, unable to sustain her in the air, and her body began to slide further down the sword, it's blade already slick and red with blood.

With a loud slurp and an audible groan from the woman as she fell to the ground, the angel wrenched it out of her. "That's right, Love..." he chirped, "...long time no see."

---

**Author's Ending Note Thingy:** Mwahahaha, cliffhanger. And aren't you proud of me for FINALLY updating? XD No, I didn't forget this fic! I really need to draw and color all these guys and put the pictures on photobucket or something. Anyway, I hope you liked it... no guarantee when the next chapter's coming, I've got three novels, and four chaptered fics currently being worked on, as well as the final quarter of Junior year of highschool, which is not a fun place to be. XD The wait may last all the way 'til summer.


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